"The times, they are a'changin'"

I'm on my second draft. As I mentioned, I churned out the original story as quickly as I could just to get the ideas down on paper before they started to get mixed up or overly complicated. One of my writing bugbears is overthinking things.

"Just a second!"

Well, now that I'm in the middle of the second draft I have to try to iron out some of the problems with that initial draft. How coherent are my characters and their development? Do they each have an individual voice to speak with? How well is my story structure and paced?


See how I mentioned "overly complicated" above? Well, I have now gotten myself in a tizz. I'm on Chapter 4, where the story transitions from introducing the characters into the body of the action. I'm terrified I'll get this wrong. The real concern being, I'm not 100% sure why I'm having trouble.

Part of it is certainly down to the pressure I'm putting on myself. I want this chapter to work. If it doesn't feel like a good transition it might come across as sloppy or messy. If the pace is adversely affected, it may come across as a stop-gap. Either way, I've blown this chapter up so much in my own head that I'm almost afraid to write it.

Decisive Action!

It may be that the ideal solution is to just go there. I have to move the story on somehow, and perhaps the best way is to just step to the next set of events. As long as I can keep my characters real, I can hopefully carry off the transition without too much detail. Not every moment of a character's life is going to be interesting, and the readers (probably) won't want the minutiae to wade through.

Also, the plot points should be exciting enough in themselves to be at least captivating, without every step being spelt out or spoonfed to the reader. Imagination is in what's missing and, as long as the reader isn't confused about where the story has gone, it should be able to carry.

Hmm! Time to get back to the writing. I have to have my primary protagonist make a decision to act. I have to have my secondary protagonist make a decision to improve her situation, and I have to have begin hinting at my main antagonist. The fleeting glimpse at the end of chapter 3 is not enough.